Who’s Social in the Media?

Humans are inherently social beings according to Frances Moore Lappe’s underlying thesis. But we don’t have to buy the book to understand that. History is littered with the attempts that humans make to breach the gullies we create through travel technology. From smoke signals to high speed internet access, communication technologies are about making a connection. What humans are good at is creating a distance problem and then solving it with communication tools.

Since this is a social media blog (yes, I realise the irony) it seems appropriate to talk about the ways we like to make connections via social media. At least communication technologies are aptly named – ‘telephone’ was a particularly sweet attempt to hide the need for human interaction inherent in the device, ‘far voice’ – and give you a sense of what to expect from them.

Almost like conversation

‘Twitter’ addresses our need to tell people about our goings-on in real time, much like we would if we lived in a small town and had close neighbours. The idea of extending our social networks in space (created by distance created by improved transport systems) didn’t allow us to let go of our indignation of not being heard. Much the same with the 'friending' of people on facebook - how annoying is that little message after you've approved a friend request that says 'you and so-and-so are now friends'. Almost as though the friendship was sealed by facebook's approval. 

We get terribly indignant – or highly bemused – when we hear of various virtual goings-on in games like Second Life; a virtual husband cheating on a virtual wife for instance. These kind of real world antics in today’s digital landscape give rise to this kind of thoroughly amusing literature on the web.

Quasi-Mediated Social Interaction

(The above is a reference to JB Thompson, media theorist.) My thesis here is that this all extends from a Lappe-like desperation for social interaction. Minus social interaction our lives are empty and quite daft really. But this gives rise to a whole new brand of conversation about social media: how social is it really and can we fulfill our desires for love and companionship by clicking the ‘in a relationship’ button, or approving a friend request on Facebook when we haven’t met our the person on the other side of the fibre-optic cable?

My answer to that is a deafening and unequivocal ‘no’. But, there is definitely a space on the web for being heard – even if it is illusory and our audiences exist only in our heads (how jealous do you get when your friends’ status updates get more comments than yours?).

I agree with the Moroccans - "Today's social networks offer huge opportunities for meeting people” – but we cannot replace physical presence with virtual reality. Social media works as a wonderful catalyst to social engagement - but we humans tend to convolute things, especially relationships - but cannot replace a good old-fashioned hug. 

Next week: more on relationships and the damage that living without them can do. 

Thanks to Stephen Poff for the great pic. Follow Stephen's phtostream on http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenpoff/.